Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-08-27
WHAT TEXAS NEEDS.
III 's 10 Prof by the Experience Of
others and Learn to Use Natures
Resources to Advantage.
Iostead of Running Off to California to Buy
aigh-Priced Lands, Make a CaIifor-
MA Out of Our Own State
DEL RIO, Ten, Aug. y, Iss7.

manipulation of the big Chicago sYndi-
cates have almost ruined the cattle in
dussry, and cattle Taisers from Red river
to the Rio Grande are in sorry straits.
Added to these the long prevailing
drou!h has ruined thousands of farmers,
and there is q general feeling of de-
preston If not OF despair all
over our fair state. Hundreds Of
families and thousands of young
men are leaving our borders, the
very people new ard undeveloped
state needs, and class that We can i'll
afford to lose. California seems to be the
promised land to these emlgranta, and
the Golden State is receiving such an in
fax as was never known be-
fore in its history. Yet in
only one thing does California ex-
Gel US, and that is climate, and even this
II confined to only narrow
strip along the southern coast.
In the valleys back from the
coast the days are just as hot ss In
Texas, and in the mountain
valleys there is difference OF
fifty degrees between day and night
temperature. Southern California is 6n
extremely dry country, not having near
the average precipitation year by year as
Texas has, and yet q common price for
land is not as fertile by so per cent. as
then, the rush to California; Simply be,
cause they have q class of people there
who are supplementipg nature by art
They have the wisdom 10 husband and
utilize their few natural gifts, and by so
hot
which few years ago was
barren waste. Take the Pasadena
country. Not q score OF years since II was
ssheep and cattle range not worth 81 an
fac1e. Men of foresight saw q big thing in
the equable climate if the lands uid be
Watered. They put money and brains
into tfe project, built immense reservoirs
In the csnons to catch the rainfall and
fumed the water out over these lands,
which are today worth $500 to $1,000 per
acre. Such is the mode ell
over Southern California. The San
Luis Rey Flume Company has
capital stock OF S5,000,C00 divided
into $4,000 shares. One OF their reser-
voirs will have dam fifty feet high that
will inclose water covering over 5000
acres to depth of thirty feet. Another
with dam ninety feet high will cover
1900 acres sixty feet deep. Thousands of
acres will be irrigated, and the almost
vslueless ranches will be cut up into
smell fruit, grain and vegetable farms,
I and become one OF the richest sections of
the state. Railroads are penetrating
every part OF the country where irrige-
ton companies are operating. Il pays
them to do so, and the annual product
| from single township of twenty and
| fortY-aCre farms would astonish an old
! BraZos bottom farmer.
These various enterprises and indus
tries give everybody plenty OF work and
good wages, and great prosperity has by
such management come to country that
so far as mere natural advantages are
concerned is far hyperion to West Texas.
Here we have living streams that would
be worth untold millions to such people
las inhnbit Southern California. They
VIRTUALLY have no streams at all
except at the heads. The waters
sink long before reaching the ocean. II
such wealth and prosperity can be Gre
ated there with their mesger facilities,
what could not West Texas be made with
her Conchos, Llanos, Devils, Pecos and
Rio Grande rivers2 These are ever fow-
ing streams, and dams can be built and
fumes made at half the cost OF those at
California. The water supply would not
be dependent on the uncertain rainfall,
but would be fed by ever living springs,
though, if needed, innumerable reservoirs
for catching the rainfall could be built all
over West Texas, and it would become
one of the grandest fruit and grain sec
tions on the continent.
Here at Del Rio we have 5000 aCras
under irrigation, the water being sup
piled simply from the San Felipe springs,
and venture TO say there is twice the
water in our ditch than in that of River
side, Cal, which irrigstes about 6e0C
acres. Our lands here if properly cult,
waited will produce in abundance every
thing suited to our climate. Messrs
Harry johnson, T. B. Bib, r. A. Farley
and others who have fsrmet
here for years are successful ant
r prosperous man, and that, too, with s
T most inferior class of labor. Had We
! the class Of farmers here that Kansas anG
LCalifornia have, the product of these
vilands could be trebled. Practical farm.
Il ers here assert that twenty acres art
amply sufficient to support family, ant
/, Mr.. G. Bochst has for years made gooC
1 living for q large family on less than that
These Se90 acres then would We'll SUI
families, or $50 persons, beside
: those engaged in businesses that would
necessarily be needed in mlnistering tt
= the wants Of such community
and this is mere spot com
D. pared to the great area Of equally GOO
tcountry we have around Us. No bette
fruits or vegetables are raised in Calitor
|. MIA than we produce here, and ten acre
]. in orchards or vines will give more ne
:. profit than the best 5000 acre sheep ranc
= in the country. II we had Califo.ni
farmers here we would at once have
cannery. Tomatoes, sweet corn, sna
, beans and many other vegetables gro'
almost without cultivation, while tn
is yield OF grapes, apples. pears, peache
20 and plums is equal to almost any porto
.e of the United States, and far superior
ID many noted fruit districts. With CAL